TLAs: Which is your favourite?

JFK - John F Kennedy

SRK - ShahRukh Khan

MIT - Massachusetts Institute of Technology

DoT - Department of Telecom

RIP - Rest In Peace

USP - Unique Selling Proposition

ICC - International Cricket Council

LPG - Liquefied Petroleum Gas

ADR - American Depository Receipts

PLR - Prime Lending Rate

ECG - Electro Cardio Gram

CRT - Cathode Ray Tube

LED - Light Emitting Diode

SOA - Service Oriented Architecture

IMF - International Monetary Fund

ISD - International Subscriber Dialing

ATM - Automated Teller Machines

CoQ - Cost of Quality

IPR - Intellectual Property Right

SIP - Systematic Investment Plan

RoI - Return on Investment

What is common between all of these?

Nothing; except that they all are TLAs i.e. Three Letter Acronyms

People like to 'create' or 'invent' short-forms - preferably of Three-letters.

Especially corporate guys, marketing gurus etc. cannot seem to survive without them. Their every 'corporate initiative', 'big strategic mission' would use several TLAs

We all know about or use TLAs subconsciously - but if you start to consciously look for them, you would be amazed how much we 'overdo' it.

As my Economics professor (a Scot with terrific sense of humor!) said (in a sarcastic tone):

"TLAs are just perfect. Two letters is too short and Four letters is one too many..."

His favourite TLA was -

JTL i.e. 'Just Too Late' (similar to JIT which stands for Just In Time)

c
lass="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:13px;">My current favourites are -

NDE i.e. Near Death Experience (This recession is giving me plenty of NDEs) and

AYF i.e. All Your Fault (I get 'AYF looks' every time I survive those NDEs)

What is your favourite TLA?

~ Kaustubh

विनोद

एकदा एक मुंगी स्कूटर वरून जात असताना एकदम खाली पडते. का?

- कारण स्कूटर संपते

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एका माणसाला ४ बहिणी असतात. तर त्याच्या मुलाचे नाव काय असेल?

- आत्याचार

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भगवान शंकरानी जर त्यांचे आत्मचरित्र लिहायचे ठरवले तर त्या आत्मचरित्राचे नाव काय असेल?

- कैलास जीवन!

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एक मराठी माणूस आपल्या आईच्या आज्जीच्या नावने bank सुरु करतो...तर त्याचे नाव काय असेल?

- आय ची आय ची आय bank

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एक नवरा बायको पहिल्यांदाच विमानात बसतात.

बायको (उत्साहाच्या भरात): अहो, ते बघा...माणसे कशी मुंग्यांसारखी दिसत आहेत

नवरा (शांतपणे): माणसे नाहीत, मुंग्याच आहेत त्या...आपले विमान अजून उडायचे आहे

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शाहरूख खान आणि करण जोहर ने ’तारे जमीन पर’ बनवला असता तर त्याचे नाव काय ठेवले असते?

- ’कुछ’ तारे जमीन पर

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शाहरूख खान आणि आदित्य चोप्राने ’गझनी’ बनवला असता तर त्याचे नाव काय ठेवले असते?

- रब ने बना दी बॊडी

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मास्तर: शाळेबाहेरच्या फणसाच्या झाडाला जर ३ फणस आहेत तर माझे वय काय?

चिंटू: ४० वर्षे

मास्तर: शाब्बास चिंटू...तू कसे ओळखलेस?

चिंटू: माझ्या घराजवळ एक अर्धवट वेडा मुलगा राहतो - त्याचे वर २० वर्षे आहे

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मास्तर: शाळेबाहेरच्या फणसाच्या झाडाला जर ३ फणस आहेत तर माझे वय काय?

चिंटू: ४० वर्षे

मास्तर: शाब्बास चिंटू...तू कसे ओळखलेस?

चिंटू: कारण मी आज डब्यात मटकीची उसळ आणली आहे

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For sale: baby shoes, never worn

This thing amused me a lot - especially after having just completed Atlas Shrugged - which is about 1200 pages long!

Have you heard of 'Flash fiction'? (or 'sudden fiction' or 'microfiction', 'micro-story' or 'postcard fiction' or 'short short story')

I hadn't - till I came across this Ernest Hemingway's six-word flash,

"For sale: baby shoes, never worn"

Yes, that's the whole story! Apparantly Ernest Hemingway was once prodded to compose a complete story in six words; Hemingway accepted the challenge and came up with this story...and it is said that he rated it the best among his work.

...

...

...

I explored a bit on this and found that such form of writing is called 'flash fiction' i.e. fiction of extreme brevity.

Wired magazine had published a compilation of few of them

The one I liked is:

Failed SAT. Lost scholarship. Invented rocket.

- William Shatner

And

We went solar; sun went nova.

- Ken MacLeod

After this I collected a few interesting attempts by various bloggers/ writers:

Shit or get off the pot.

You're not my wife? My bad.

the pattern was perfect. well, no.

hmmmm....there must me something more...

I hate long goodbyes. Just leave.

Another interesting thing I found was:

The World's Shortest Horror Story:

"The last man on Earth sat alone in a room. There was a knock at the door."

(author unknown to me)

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Cool, isn't it? It really amazes me - The power of words - when used sparingly :)

~ Kaustubh

The Best Drunken Conversation

The best drunken conversation:

What is the man saying here?

My answer: I Am Not As Thunk As You Drink I Am

What's your answer? Come on...shooooot; let your creative and witty juices flow... :)

~ Kaustubh

The Road Not Taken by Robert Frost

.................

.................

.................

(last paragraph...)

I shall be telling this with a sigh 

Somewhere ages and ages hence 

Two roads diverged in a wood 

And I took the one less traveled by 

And that has made all the difference 

~ Robert Frost

My desktop wallpaper...

Just a thought came to my mind - to share my desktop wallpapers, from time to time...so that I can remember in future what my mood was look at that poin in time...(not that there is any 'deep thought' in having those as wallpapers - but definitely it says something...)

Current wallpaper:

Previous wallpaper:

The next change will be in June 2009 or when my mood changes (whichever is earlier!) - :)

~ Kaustubh

Jai Ho!

Finally, my looooooong time wish is going to come true...

I will be attending 2-times Oscar winner A R Rahman's concert in my home city - Pune on 31st May 2009...bought the Silver pass today...can't wait for the concert...too eager to experience the Rahman magic!!!

~ Kaustubh